Q is for Questioning Your Characters – #AtoZChallenge

Hiya! For today’s #AtoZChallenge post, we are up to the letter “Q.” Since I don’t want to deal with the literary device quatrain (because I am not a poet and I do not deal with four lines of verses…), I will instead discuss questioning your characters.

When fleshing out your story, we, the writers, need to know as much about our characters as possible. This way, we can do our best to make them fully rounded characters that our readers will enjoy taking a journey with for the duration of your book, or short story.

One way to do this, is the ask your character questions, lots of questions! A few years ago, I found the greatest set of questions aimed at doing a character interview. However, it works just as well for the writer to ‘interview’ the character for entrance into the current WIP.

One of my favorite blogs, The Write Practice, posted this great article on Marcel Proust’s idea of questioning your characters. I have used it religiously ever since I found it.

While these 35 questions are not an exhaustive listing of everything that can be asked, it is pretty darned close! However, here is another article from The Athletic Nerd, a blog focused on screenwriting, with a list of lists of questions to ask your characters.